A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
I knew when I was about ½ way through that this would make the top 5. If you like what Boyd did with [Any Human Heart] you will love this. Instead of sending his character out into the world to experience big events, Towles confines his to a Moscow hotel and brings the world to him. It’s really an amazing piece of fiction and does what I think fiction should - entertains, educates and uplifts. Bravo!
The Lower Quarter by Elise Blackwell
Such a confident novel. Plays with structure, but not so much that the story is lost. Told in three major sections, each tackles a particular aspect of the plot and the relationships between the characters. As the story progresses the reader learns how they are interconnected and there are some surprises along the way.
Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas
You think you know scheming, backstabbing, double dealing and treachery? You don’t know anything compared to the French aristocracy. We also get a massacre, secret romances, murder, imprisonment, friendship, changing alliances, secret passageways, eavesdropping, clandestine meetings and religious conversions. Great stuff. Full review here.
Absolution by Patrick Flannery
Hard to believe this is a first novel. By comparison his third, [I Am No One] is far weaker. It’s the story of a famous writer working with a biographer to tell her tale, albeit reluctantly and with a lot of conditions. Some reviews complain that things are not as clear for the reader as they could be, but I didn’t mind as much as some. There are several narratives and timelines to follow and if you don’t pay attention, things can slip. There is such deliberation in the way this story is told that it’s easy to trust the author. Even when things were obscure, I felt confident that Flanery would get me satisfaction in the end and he did. Full review here.
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Lately it seems books are getting longer and longer. Most writers are snared into writing series rather than stand-alone books, so I think it takes even more skill than usual to hone a short, tight book without a lot of extraneous detail or background. Watson delivers. By today’s standards this book is a novella, but it’s pretty intense and while it doesn’t require careful reading (the plot’s not that complex) it will keep you engaged and delighted with the writing.
The Terranauts by T.C. Boyle
If you’re a fan of what Boyle does, you’ll like this book. Yes, it’s a bit soap-opera-ish, but that’s what humans get up to when you put them into a small sphere. And Boyle does the small sphere so well that I can forgive even the louts for their behavior. For the most part it goes the way you think it might go if you’re a student of humanity. Petty squabbles turn into big divides and people separate into factions. There are alliances and enmity and hidden agendas. Not much in the way of major drama or action, but I found it plenty interesting. You know that each narrator is fallible, as are we all, and when things don’t quite check up from one story to another, it pulls you along and makes you wonder what the real story is. Oh and as I’ve said before, Boyle can write the walls down.
The Muse by Jessie Burton
I know a lot of people really fell in love with Burton's first novel, The Miniaturist, but I wasn't one of them. I liked it, but found it too unresolved. She can tell a story though so I didn't hesitate to pick up her second book and it's much more accomplished in my opinion. It’s a quietly moving book about the suppression of female talent, the value of art, the anguish of creation and the price of friendship and keeping secrets. Instead of a single timeframe as in her first book, here we get two; 1967 (with Odelle’s life and situation in London) and 1938 (with the Schloss family’s entanglement with the Robles siblings in Spain). The 1967 section deals with the rediscovery of a ‘lost’ Issac Robles painting and the 1938 section with its creation. The mystery Odelle needs to solve isn’t one for the reader, but Burton still has a few surprises up her sleeve. Full review here.
Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch
This is Koch’s most accomplished work that I’ve read so far (The Dinner & Summer House with Swimming Pool being the others). The construction is a bit odd and the story isn’t told in a linear way, so those easily confused need not apply. If you can follow the story you’ll find a lot to like including a lovely send-up of the publishing world (at least as it exists in the Netherlands, but it probably applies everywhere) and how making movies based on books wrecks a reader’s imagination. There’s also quite a bit on a writer’s fear of becoming washed up; a fraud who couldn’t ever really write anyway. The main thrust of the book, however, is about obsession and the illusion of control. Full review here.
Arcadia by Iain Pears
Fantasy and science fiction? What? Did I fall and hit my head? What possessed me to read this? Iain Pears. Having read 4 of his other books, I knew he wouldn’t leave me with a pile of stupid in the end (Connie Willis, I’m looking at you). And for the most part he didn’t. Even though Pears wrote this book to be read electronically, I decided to get the hardcover. I think the ebook has multiple endings and some other features that are harder to do as a physical book, and one of these days I’ll try it that way if I see a sale copy somewhere. That said, I don’t think being confined to a single ending was a drawback, although there is one big hole in the plot that kept this from being a 5-star book for me, but it was intensely engrossing, well-written with some terrific characters. Full review here.
The Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
Chevalier is known for her historical fiction novels and this one is set in frontier America, albeit a part that isn’t nearly as treated or romanticized as some like the Dakotas, prairie states or places in Big Sky country. Instead our hapless family washes up in northwestern Ohio in what is essentially a swamp. Let the wretchedness begin. The story is told in two main parts; direct narrative from the perspectives of James and Sadie, husband and wife who had to leave Connecticut because there wasn’t enough of James’ family land to go around, the other piece of the story comes from letters written by youngest son Robert after he escapes his horror show of a life in Black Swamp. Great atmosphere and voice throughout. Full review here.
Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III
Not a novel in the traditional sense, Dirty Love is four loosely connected novellas delving into the turmoil, trauma and tenderness of love and relationships. Hilariously, my library put a romance sticker on the spine with hearts on it. Uh, no. No HEA ending here. This is not a romance and if you can’t handle fairly explicit sex scenes, don’t read it. Because the stories all feature different characters (with tiny spill-overs from prior sections) in different situations, there’s a lot here to like or dislike depending on your perspective. Full review here.
Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon
I didn't write a review for this book, but should have. Only a very talented writer could take a famous event, the ending of which is widely known and shape it into a taut story that almost drives you to the end, wishing beyond reason that it could turn out differently. Using multiple narrators, Lawhon takes us to the last flight of the doomed airship Hindenburg. There is a helpful author's note at the end where she talks about her copious research.
So those are the best that don't fit neatly into buckets. Crime fiction gets its own bucket this year so that will come soon! Then there's stats to follow and who doesn't love a good chart?
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